Podcasts about reverend a

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli joins host Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard to discuss the intersection of faith, public service, and fiscal responsibility. The conversation begins with a reflection on religious traditions like Lent and the Jewish Yahrtzeit, emphasizing how spiritual discipline and the memory of loved ones should inspire a forward-looking sense of moral responsibility rather than mere ritual. DiNapoli argues that his Catholic upbringing provides a "North Star" of optimism, allowing him to reframe societal despair through a lens of hope while maintaining a commitment to integrity and bipartisanship in his political role. Transitioning to state affairs, the dialogue covers the challenges of the New York budget, where DiNapoli advocates for efficiency and vigilance against fraud to manage long-term deficits. He further explains the Comptroller's duty to protect the pension fund's stability against political pressures, framing his conservative investment strategy as a necessary safeguard for the retirement security of over a million public workers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik host New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to explore the intersection of spiritual faith and public service. The dialogue highlights how the traditions of Lent, Ramadan, and Yahrzeit serve as catalysts for moral reflection and a sense of communal responsibility, framing religion as a "North Star" for navigating social challenges. DiNapoli details his approach to fiscal oversight and the management of pension funds, emphasizing that his commitment to integrity and transparency is rooted in a religious rejection of pessimism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli joins host Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard to discuss the intersection of faith, public service, and fiscal responsibility. The conversation begins with a reflection on religious traditions like Lent and the Jewish Yahrtzeit, emphasizing how spiritual discipline and the memory of loved ones should inspire a forward-looking sense of moral responsibility rather than mere ritual. DiNapoli argues that his Catholic upbringing provides a "North Star" of optimism, allowing him to reframe societal despair through a lens of hope while maintaining a commitment to integrity and bipartisanship in his political role. Transitioning to state affairs, the dialogue covers the challenges of the New York budget, where DiNapoli advocates for efficiency and vigilance against fraud to manage long-term deficits. He further explains the Comptroller's duty to protect the pension fund's stability against political pressures, framing his conservative investment strategy as a necessary safeguard for the retirement security of over a million public workers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik host New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to explore the intersection of spiritual faith and public service. The dialogue highlights how the traditions of Lent, Ramadan, and Yahrzeit serve as catalysts for moral reflection and a sense of communal responsibility, framing religion as a "North Star" for navigating social challenges. DiNapoli details his approach to fiscal oversight and the management of pension funds, emphasizing that his commitment to integrity and transparency is rooted in a religious rejection of pessimism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard host Deacon Kevin McCormack to discuss the financial and emotional crisis facing the Catholic school system in Brooklyn. The conversation highlights the heartbreaking closure of several local schools due to declining enrollment and a lack of public funding, prompting an urgent plea for New York to adopt federal scholarship tax credits. Beyond policy, the speakers reflect on their long history of interfaith dialogue, emphasizing that religious education provides a vital moral foundation and a sense of "mystery" that young people increasingly crave.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard host Deacon Kevin McCormack to discuss the financial and emotional crisis facing the Catholic school system in Brooklyn. The conversation highlights the heartbreaking closure of several local schools due to declining enrollment and a lack of public funding, prompting an urgent plea for New York to adopt federal scholarship tax credits. Beyond policy, the speakers reflect on their long history of interfaith dialogue, emphasizing that religious education provides a vital moral foundation and a sense of "mystery" that young people increasingly crave.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard engage in a nuanced dialogue with criminal defense attorney Allan Abramson regarding a controversial officer-involved shooting in Minneapolis. The conversation centers on the death of Alex Frety, a licensed gun owner, utilizing his case to highlight the dangers of rushing to judgment before independent investigations are complete. Abramson emphasizes the critical need for de-escalation training and professional accountability, noting that modern law enforcement often lacks the rigorous preparation required for complex street encounters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview criminal defense attorney Allan Abramson regarding a controversial shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. The discussion centers on the death of Alex Pretti, a licensed gun owner who was killed by ICE agents, and highlights the growing tension between civil liberties and militarized law enforcement. Abramson critiques the lack of transparency and inadequate training of federal personnel, contrasting their aggressive tactics with traditional police methods of de-escalation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard engage in a nuanced dialogue with criminal defense attorney Allan Abramson regarding a controversial officer-involved shooting in Minneapolis. The conversation centers on the death of Alex Frety, a licensed gun owner, utilizing his case to highlight the dangers of rushing to judgment before independent investigations are complete. Abramson emphasizes the critical need for de-escalation training and professional accountability, noting that modern law enforcement often lacks the rigorous preparation required for complex street encounters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview criminal defense attorney Allan Abramson regarding a controversial shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. The discussion centers on the death of Alex Pretti, a licensed gun owner who was killed by ICE agents, and highlights the growing tension between civil liberties and militarized law enforcement. Abramson critiques the lack of transparency and inadequate training of federal personnel, contrasting their aggressive tactics with traditional police methods of de-escalation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview Dr. Georgette Bennett to explore the dual nature of religion as both a source of humanitarian compassion and a tool for extremist indoctrination. Dr. Bennett discusses her book, Half Jew, Full Life, which details the Holocaust-era struggle for identity and the dangers of authoritarianism and hate speech. A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the Multifaith Alliance, highlighting Dr. Bennett's work in building bridges between sworn enemies and providing aid to Syrian war victims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview Dr. Georgette Bennett regarding her extensive humanitarian career and her new book, Half Jew for Life. The conversation highlights Bennett's work with the Multifaith Alliance, where she successfully bridged divides between Syrians and Israelis by providing massive amounts of medical and humanitarian aid to war victims. A central theme of the discussion is the dual nature of religion, exploring how sacred texts can be manipulated to justify violence or harnessed to inspire interreligious understanding and compassion for the stranger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview Dr. Georgette Bennett regarding her extensive humanitarian career and her new book, Half Jew for Life. The conversation highlights Bennett's work with the Multifaith Alliance, where she successfully bridged divides between Syrians and Israelis by providing massive amounts of medical and humanitarian aid to war victims. A central theme of the discussion is the dual nature of religion, exploring how sacred texts can be manipulated to justify violence or harnessed to inspire interreligious understanding and compassion for the stranger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview Dr. Georgette Bennett to explore the dual nature of religion as both a source of humanitarian compassion and a tool for extremist indoctrination. Dr. Bennett discusses her book, Half Jew, Full Life, which details the Holocaust-era struggle for identity and the dangers of authoritarianism and hate speech. A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the Multifaith Alliance, highlighting Dr. Bennett's work in building bridges between sworn enemies and providing aid to Syrian war victims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard host Alireza Jafarzadeh to discuss the ongoing struggle for democracy in Iran and the deep-seated corruption of its current theocracy. Jafarzadeh, a prominent policy expert, details how the regime has weaponized religion to justify brutal repression while simultaneously plunging the nation into an unprecedented economic collapse by diverting wealth to nuclear ambitions and foreign proxies. The dialogue moves from the historical failure of the Shah's monarchy to the modern necessity of a grassroots, women-led resistance capable of establishing a secular, representative republic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview policy expert Alireza Jafarzadeh to examine the systemic oppression and growing internal resistance within modern Iran. Jafarzadeh details how the ruling theocracy maintains power through violent repression, economic mismanagement, and the strategic misuse of religion, contrasts that with the "stolen revolution" that replaced the monarchy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview policy expert Alireza Jafarzadeh to examine the systemic oppression and growing internal resistance within modern Iran. Jafarzadeh details how the ruling theocracy maintains power through violent repression, economic mismanagement, and the strategic misuse of religion, contrasts that with the "stolen revolution" that replaced the monarchy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard host Alireza Jafarzadeh to discuss the ongoing struggle for democracy in Iran and the deep-seated corruption of its current theocracy. Jafarzadeh, a prominent policy expert, details how the regime has weaponized religion to justify brutal repression while simultaneously plunging the nation into an unprecedented economic collapse by diverting wealth to nuclear ambitions and foreign proxies. The dialogue moves from the historical failure of the Shah's monarchy to the modern necessity of a grassroots, women-led resistance capable of establishing a secular, representative republic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this radio broadcast, hosts Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview Reverend Dr. Michael Faulkner to explore the complex intersection of faith and governance in the United States. The dialogue centers on the distinction between shared Judeo-Christian principles and the more extreme ideology of Christian nationalism, which Faulkner defines as a dangerous form of triumphalism that seeks religious dominion over the state. By distinguishing between cultural influences and state religion, the speakers argue that while biblical ethics shaped America's founding, the nation must remain a pluralistic society where religious freedom and civic equality are guaranteed for all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "The Rev and the Rabbi," hosts Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard engage in a spirited dialogue with guests to explore the intersection of faith, law, and national identity. The program first examines the rise of Christian nationalism, featuring Reverend Dr. Michael Faulkner, who clarifies that while the United States was culturally shaped by Judeo-Christian principles, its democratic foundation necessitates a separation of church and state to ensure religious freedom for all. Shifting toward foreign policy, the hosts then consult attorney Allan Abramson to critique a recent military intervention in Venezuela, questioning the balance of power between the executive branch and Congress.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview criminal defense attorney Alan Abramson to analyze the legal and ethical implications of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. The conversation centers on the extraction of Nicolás Maduro, with Abramson arguing that using the military for law enforcement actions violates international law and bypasses the established constitutional process of congressional approval. The participants explore the tension between the moral desire to remove despots and the danger of eroding the balance of power between government branches, particularly as it relates to executive overreach and the pursuit of oil interests.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview criminal defense attorney Alan Abramson to analyze the legal and ethical implications of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. The conversation centers on the extraction of Nicolás Maduro, with Abramson arguing that using the military for law enforcement actions violates international law and bypasses the established constitutional process of congressional approval. The participants explore the tension between the moral desire to remove despots and the danger of eroding the balance of power between government branches, particularly as it relates to executive overreach and the pursuit of oil interests.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "The Rev and the Rabbi," hosts Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard engage in a spirited dialogue with guests to explore the intersection of faith, law, and national identity. The program first examines the rise of Christian nationalism, featuring Reverend Dr. Michael Faulkner, who clarifies that while the United States was culturally shaped by Judeo-Christian principles, its democratic foundation necessitates a separation of church and state to ensure religious freedom for all. Shifting toward foreign policy, the hosts then consult attorney Allan Abramson to critique a recent military intervention in Venezuela, questioning the balance of power between the executive branch and Congress.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this radio broadcast, hosts Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview Reverend Dr. Michael Faulkner to explore the complex intersection of faith and governance in the United States. The dialogue centers on the distinction between shared Judeo-Christian principles and the more extreme ideology of Christian nationalism, which Faulkner defines as a dangerous form of triumphalism that seeks religious dominion over the state. By distinguishing between cultural influences and state religion, the speakers argue that while biblical ethics shaped America's founding, the nation must remain a pluralistic society where religious freedom and civic equality are guaranteed for all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard interview criminal defense attorney Allan Abramson to analyze the legal and ethical implications of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. The conversation centers on the extraction of Nicolás Maduro, with Abramson arguing that using the military for law enforcement actions violates international law and bypasses the established constitutional process of congressional approval. The participants explore the tension between the moral desire to remove despots and the danger of eroding the balance of power between government branches, particularly as it relates to executive overreach and the pursuit of oil interests.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first show of 2026, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard critique the inaugural actions of New York City's new mayor, specifically his shift toward collectivism and his decision to rescind executive orders regarding anti-Semitism and the BDS movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first show of 2026, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard critique the inaugural actions of New York City's new mayor, specifically his shift toward collectivism and his decision to rescind executive orders regarding anti-Semitism and the BDS movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard join news anchor Noam Laden to review the pivotal political and social milestones of the past year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard reflecting on the significant religious, social, and political transformations of the past year. The dialogue serves as a provocative retrospective on a second Trump administration, touching on the President's unconventional diplomatic successes in the Middle East and his radical restructuring of American governance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard reflecting on the significant religious, social, and political transformations of the past year. The dialogue serves as a provocative retrospective on a second Trump administration, touching on the President's unconventional diplomatic successes in the Middle East and his radical restructuring of American governance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard join news anchor Noam Laden to review the pivotal political and social milestones of the past year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard reflecting on the significant religious, social, and political transformations of the past year. The dialogue serves as a provocative retrospective on a second Trump administration, touching on the President's unconventional diplomatic successes in the Middle East and his radical restructuring of American governance.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik host an enlightening dialogue with Timothy Cardinal Dolan of the Christian Cultural Center. They explore the challenges of delivering religious messages to diverse congregations, particularly during holy days like Passover and Easter. Cardinal Dolan emphasizes the transient yet impactful presence of congregants during these times, likening it to family gatherings on significant holidays. The discussion delves into themes of rebirth, finding meaning, and the cyclic nature of faith. They also address sociological trends, such as the surprising increase in young men's interest in religion, and how faith communities can better support this demographic. Moreover, the episode touches on the importance of marriage and family dynamics in reinforcing religious and moral values. Cardinal Dolan, Reverend Bernard, and Rabbi Potasnik further discuss societal issues like the rise of violence, the role of houses of worship in providing community, and the resilience of faith in the face of challenges. The conversation concludes with a reflection on holidays, traditions, and personal resilience against anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred, underscoring the enduring power of faith and community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik welcome special guest Timothy Cardinal Dolan. They discuss the significance of congregational gatherings during sacred holidays like Passover and Easter, and the challenge of crafting messages that resonate with both frequent and occasional worshippers. The conversation delves into the importance of community, the feeling of emptiness in pursuit of material success, the value of marriage and family, and the need for a balanced work-rest rhythm. The episode highlights the enduring human search for meaning, purpose, and connectedness through faith and tradition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik host an enlightening dialogue with Timothy Cardinal Dolan of the Christian Cultural Center. They explore the challenges of delivering religious messages to diverse congregations, particularly during holy days like Passover and Easter. Cardinal Dolan emphasizes the transient yet impactful presence of congregants during these times, likening it to family gatherings on significant holidays. The discussion delves into themes of rebirth, finding meaning, and the cyclic nature of faith. They also address sociological trends, such as the surprising increase in young men's interest in religion, and how faith communities can better support this demographic. Moreover, the episode touches on the importance of marriage and family dynamics in reinforcing religious and moral values. Cardinal Dolan, Reverend Bernard, and Rabbi Potasnik further discuss societal issues like the rise of violence, the role of houses of worship in providing community, and the resilience of faith in the face of challenges. The conversation concludes with a reflection on holidays, traditions, and personal resilience against anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred, underscoring the enduring power of faith and community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik welcome special guest Timothy Cardinal Dolan. They discuss the significance of congregational gatherings during sacred holidays like Passover and Easter, and the challenge of crafting messages that resonate with both frequent and occasional worshippers. The conversation delves into the importance of community, the feeling of emptiness in pursuit of material success, the value of marriage and family, and the need for a balanced work-rest rhythm. The episode highlights the enduring human search for meaning, purpose, and connectedness through faith and tradition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frank Morano discusses some of the hottest topics and gives his opinion. Frank talks about New York's ban on cameras in the courtroom and then Frank talks about the Reverend A.R. Bernard stepping down from the Charter Revision Commission for not living in New York. Frank talks about the mayor of Clark NJ stepping down for using township employees for his business and then Frank talks about Mayor Adams going to a beauty salon in Queens.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reverend A. R. Bernard screening of "Real faith", his new documentary that zooms in at the issues that take place today, religion, morality, identity and policies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we continue celebrating Black history and heritage with a special encore episode honoring an often forgotten civil rights leader. We take a look at the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, a central figure in and the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was a trusted advisor to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Rustin's methodology for challenging racial inequality and imperialism centered on his intersectional perspective on race, class, gender, and sexuality. This episode combines film excerpts, insightful interviews and speeches from this important figure of the civil rights movement who envisioned and organized for the best future. Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. Special Thank You to Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer the producers/directors of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin and Sam Pollard, the executive director.  And to the Pacifica Radio Archives for use of the Bayard Rustin archival materials. Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.    EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Bayard Rustin, the architect of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; Ashon Crawley, University of Virginia Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African-American and African Studies; Nancy Kates, filmmaker and producer of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin; Bill Sutherland, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Reverend A.J. Muste, pacifist and mentor of Rustin; George Houser, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Louis John, nephew of Bayard Rustin; Devi Prasad, pacifist.     MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. MUSIC: This episode includes "Medieval Tension" by Cory Gray; "This Way Joyous" by Ketsa; "Rally," "Rayling," and "3rd Chair" by  Blue Dot Sessions; "Hold On" and "Go Down Moses" by Dee Yan-Key; and "Our Young Guts" by Andy G. Cohen.  Learn More:  Bayard Rustin Fund Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers PBS History AFL-CIO Washington Post NYTimes

Today on The Rev and The Rabbi, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and Reverend A.R. Bernard discuss the tragic attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem that killed seven people, as well as addressing the heinous attack on Tyre Nichols by Memphis police. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this Monday edition of Sid & Friends in the Morning, we spend the day recognizing the celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with big name guests throughout the day that speak on the impact that Dr. King had on the Civil Rights Movement and the current standing of the black population across the United States of America. The Reverend would have been 94 years old yesterday. In other news of the day, the New York Football Giants advance through the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs to set up a matchup in Philadelphia against the Eagles come Saturday night, Sid's interview with Congressman George Santos from 2020 goes mega viral over the weekend, New York City Mayor Eric Adams spends the weekend in El Paso as he continues to try and resolve the migrant crisis here in the city, legendary collegiate basketball head coach John Calipari is in hot water as there is currently a warrant out for his arrest, and a trans man now owns the "Miss Universe" beauty competition. Mike Lawler, John Catsimatidis, Rich Lowry, Norman Siegel, Reverend A.R. Bernard and Homer Bush join the program. As always, make sure you don't miss out on the Monday installment of Lidia Reports with Lidia Curanaj and the "Movie Monday" edition of The Peerless Boilers Sid's Take Contest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On MLK Day, Sid is joined with Reverend A.R. Bernard where the two talk about the importance Dr. Martin Luther King had on race relations, debate on how the black community developed into what it is today, and whether or not it's made substantial strides to benefit the African American community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Rev and the Rabbi, Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik talk about the war on open communication in society, and the George Santos scandal. Noam Laden joins the show to join in on the discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Rev and The Rabbi, Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik talk about the police stopping a plot to attack a New York City synagogue, and the arrest of two suspects. They also discuss the upcoming seventy-fifth anniversary of Israel's rebirth. The two also discuss the lack of appreciation for the religious freedom enjoyed by all in America. Bishop Robert Stearns joins the show to talk about the connection of the American story and the story of Israel and the Jewish people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Rev and The Rabbi, Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik are joined by Jonathan Wachtel, to give an insiders view of Russian politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Rev and The Rabbi, Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik talk about the war in the Ukraine and the corruption that dominates Russian politics. They also talk about Iran going through civil unrest and Iran's ability to keep it's citizens subdued with violence and bloodshed. Jonathan Wachtel, joins the show to lend his expertise in global affairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Rev and the Rabbi, Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik reflect on the passing of WABC Radio Host Bernard McGuirk. The team is joined by WABC Personalities Jacquelyn Karl, and Curtis Sliwa to talk about Bernie's passing. In addition Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis joins the show to talk about, what she would advise and do about changing our policies in America, and where she seees NYC and The United States Of America headed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Rev and the Rabbi, Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik reflect on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. They also talks about the immigrants that are getting bused around the country and the politics involved. Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik also talk about the excitement in baseball with New York Yankee star, Aaron Judge, chasing the home run record. David Paterson joins the show today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Governor David Paterson joins Reverend A. R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 124 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “People Get Ready", the Impressions, and the early career of Curtis Mayfield.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "I'm Henry VIII I Am" by Herman's Hermits. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud playlist, with full versions of all the songs excerpted in this episode. A lot of resources were used for this episode. Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs by Guy and Candie Carawan is a combination oral history of the Civil Rights movement and songbook. Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power by Aaron Cohen is a history of Chicago soul music and the way it intersected with politics. Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield  by Todd Mayfield with Travis Atria is a biography of Mayfield by one of his sons, and rather better than one might expect given that. Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul by Craig Werner looks at the parallels and divergences in the careers of its three titular soul stars. This compilation has a decent selection of recordings Mayfield wrote and produced for other artists on OKeh in the early sixties. This single-CD set of Jerry Butler recordings contains his Impressions recordings as well as several songs written or co-written by Mayfield. This double-CD of Major Lance's recordings contains all the hits Mayfield wrote for him. And this double-CD collection has all the Impressions' singles from 1961 through 1968. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A couple of episodes ago we had a look at one of the first classic protest songs of the soul genre. Today we're going to look at how Sam Cooke's baton was passed on to another generation of soul singer/songwriters, and at one of the greatest songwriters of that generation. We're going to look at the early career of Curtis Mayfield, and at "People Get Ready" by the Impressions: [Excerpt: The Impressions, "People Get Ready"] A quick note before I start this one -- there is no way in this episode of avoiding dealing with the fact that the Impressions' first hit with a Curtis Mayfield lead vocal has, in its title, a commonly used word for Romany people beginning with "g" that many of those people regard as a slur -- while others embrace the term for themselves. I've thought long and hard about how to deal with this, and the compromise I've come up with is that I will use excerpts from the song, which will contain that word, but I won't use the word myself. I'm not happy with that compromise, but it's the best I can do. It's unfortunate that that word turns up a *lot* in music in the period I'm covering -- it's basically impossible to avoid. Anyway, on with the show... Curtis Mayfield is one of those musicians who this podcast will almost by definition underserve -- my current plan is to do a second episode on him, but if this was a thousand-song podcast he would have a *lot* more than just two episodes. He was one of the great musical forces of the sixties and seventies, and listeners to the Patreon bonus episodes will already have come across him several times before, as he was one of those musicians who becomes the centre of a whole musical scene, writing and producing for most of the other soul musicians to come out of Chicago in the late fifties and early 1960s. Mayfield grew up in Chicago, in the kind of poverty that is, I hope, unimaginable to most of my listeners. He had to become "the man of the house" from age five, looking after his younger siblings as his mother went out looking for work, as his father abandoned his family, moved away, and changed his name. His mother was on welfare for much of the time, and Mayfield's siblings have talked about how their special Christmas meal often consisted of cornbread and syrup, and they lived off beans, rice, and maybe a scrap of chicken neck every two weeks. They were so hungry so often that they used to make a game of it -- drinking water until they were full, and then making sloshing noises with their bellies, laughing at them making noises other than rumbling. But while his mother was poor, Mayfield saw that there was a way to escape from poverty. Specifically, he saw it in his paternal grandmother, the Reverend A.B. Mayfield, a Spiritualist priest, who was the closest thing to a rich person in his life. For those who don't know what Spiritualism is, it's one of the many new religious movements that sprouted up in the Northeastern US in the mid to late nineteenth centuries, like the Holiness Movement (which became Pentecostalism), the New Thought, Christian Science, Mormonism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Spiritualists believe, unlike mainstream Christianity, that it is possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead, and that those spirits can provide information about the afterlife, and about the nature of God and angels. If you've ever seen, either in real life or in a fictional depiction, a medium communicating with spirits through a seance, that's spiritualism. There are numbers of splinter spiritualist movements, and the one Reverend Mayfield, and most Black American Spiritualists at this time, belonged to was one that used a lot of elements of Pentecostalism and couched its teachings in the Bible -- to an outside observer not conversant with the theology, it might seem no different from any other Black church of the period, other than having a woman in charge. But most other churches would not have been funded by their presiding minister's winnings from illegal gambling, as she claimed to have the winning numbers in the local numbers racket come to her in dreams, and won often enough that people believed her. Reverend Mayfield's theology also incorporated elements from the Nation of Islam, which at that time was growing in popularity, and was based in Chicago. Chicago was also the home of gospel music -- it was where Sister Rosetta Tharpe had got her start and where Mahalia Jackson and Thomas Dorsey and the Soul Stirrers were all based -- and so of course Reverend Mayfield's church got its own gospel quartet, the Northern Jubilee Singers. They modelled themselves explicitly on the Soul Stirrers, who at the time were led by Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, "Jesus Gave Me Water"] Curtis desperately wanted to join the Northern Jubilee Singers, and particularly admired their lead singer, Jerry Butler, as well as being a huge fan of their inspiration Sam Cooke. But he was too young -- he was eight years old, and the group members were twelve and thirteen, an incommensurable gap at that age. So Curtis couldn't join the Jubilee singers, but he kept trying to perform, and not just with gospel -- as well as gospel, Chicago was also the home of electric blues, being where Chess Records was based, and young Curtis Mayfield was surrounded by the music of people like Muddy Waters: [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "Rollin' and Tumblin'"] And so as well as singing gospel songs, he started singing and playing the blues, inspired by Waters, Little Walter, and other Chess acts. His first instrument was the piano, and young Curtis found that he naturally gravitated to the black keys -- he liked the sound of those best, and didn't really like playing the white keys. I won't get into the music theory too much here, but the black keys on a piano make what is called a pentatonic scale -- a five-note scale that is actually the basis for most folk music forms, whether Celtic folk, Indian traditional music, the blues, bluegrass, Chinese traditional music... pentatonic scales have been independently invented by almost every culture, and you might think of them as the "natural" music, what people default to. The black notes on the piano make that scale in the key of F#: [Excerpt: pentatonic scale in F#] The notes in that are F#, G#, A#, C#, and D#. When young Curtis found a guitar in his grandmother's closet, he didn't like the way it sounded -- if you strum the open strings of a guitar they don't make a chord (well, every combination of notes is a chord, but they don't make one most people think of as pleasant) -- the standard guitar tuning is E, A, D, G, B, E. Little Curtis didn't like this sound, so he retuned the guitar to F#, A#, C#, F#, A#, F# -- notes from the chord of F#, and all of them black keys on the piano. Now, tuning a guitar to open chords is a fairly standard thing to do -- guitarists as varied as Keith Richards, Steve Cropper, and Dolly Parton tune their guitars to open chords -- but doing it to F# is something that pretty much only Mayfield ever did, and it meant his note choices were odd ones. He would later say with pride that he used to love it when other guitarists picked up his guitar, because no matter how good they were they couldn't play on his instrument. He quickly became extremely proficient as a blues guitarist, and his guitar playing soon led the Northern Jubilee Singers to reconsider having him in the band. By the time he was eleven he was a member of the group and travelling with them to gospel conventions all over the US. But he had his fingers in multiple musical pies -- he formed a blues group, who would busk outside the pool-hall where his uncle was playing, and he also formed a doo-wop group, the Alphatones, who became locally popular. Jerry Butler, the Jubilee Singers' lead vocalist, had also joined a doo-wop group -- a group called the Roosters, who had moved up to Chicago from Chattanooga. Butler was convinced that to make the Roosters stand out, they needed a guitarist like Mayfield, but Mayfield at first remained uninterested -- he already had his own group, the Alphatones. Butler suggested that Mayfield should rehearse with both groups, three days a week each, and then stick with the group that was better. Soon Mayfield found himself a full-time member of the Roosters. In 1957, when Curtis was fifteen, the group entered a talent contest at a local school, headlined by the Medallionaires, a locally-popular group who had released a single on Mercury, "Magic Moonlight": [Excerpt: The Medallionaires, "Magic Moonlight"] The Medallionaires' manager, Eddie Thomas, had been around the music industry since he was a child – his stepfather had been the great blues pianist Big Maceo Merriweather, who had made records like "Worried Life Blues": [Excerpt: Big Maceo Merriweather, "Worried Life Blues"] Thomas hadn't had any success in the industry yet, but at this talent contest, the Roosters did a close-harmony version of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me", and Thomas decided that they had potential, especially Mayfield and Butler. He signed them to a management contract, but insisted they changed their name. They cast around for a long time to find something more suitable, and eventually decided on The Impressions, because they'd made such an impression on Thomas. The group were immediately taken by Thomas on a tour of the large indie labels, and at each one they sang a song that members of the group had written, which was inspired by a song called "Open Our Eyes" by the Gospel Clefs: [Excerpt: The Gospel Clefs, "Open Our Eyes"] Herman Lubinsky at Savoy liked the song, and suggested that Jerry speak-sing it, which was a suggestion the group took up, but he passed on them. So did Ralph Bass at King. Mercury Records gave them some session work, but weren't able to sign the group themselves -- the session was with the big band singer Eddie Howard, singing backing vocals on a remake of "My Last Goodbye", a song he'd recorded multiple times before. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down a copy of that recording, the Impressions' first, only Howard's other recordings of the song. Eventually, the group got the interest of a tiny label called Bandera, whose owner Vi Muszynski was interested -- but she had to get the approval of Vee-Jay Records, the larger label that distributed Bandera's records. Vee-Jay was a very odd label. It was one of a tiny number of Black-owned record labels in America at the time, and possibly the biggest of them, and it's interesting to compare them to Chess Records, which was based literally across the road. Both put out R&B records, but Chess was white-owned and specialised in hardcore Chicago electric blues -- Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and so on. Vee-Jay, on the other hand, certainly put out its fair share of that kind of music, but they also put out a lot of much smoother doo-wop and early soul, and they would have their biggest hits a few years after this, not with blues artists, but with the Four Seasons, and with their licensing of British records by Frank Ifield and the Beatles. Both Vee-Jay and Chess were aiming at a largely Black market, but Black-owned Vee-Jay was much more comfortable with white pop acts than white-owned Chess. Muszynski set up an audition with Calvin Carter, the head of A&R at Vee-Jay, and selected the material the group were to perform for Carter -- rather corny songs the group were not at all comfortable with. They ran through that repertoire, and Carter said they sounded good but didn't they have any originals? They played a couple of originals, and Carter wasn't interested in those. Then Carter had a thought -- did they have any songs they felt ashamed of playing for him? Something that they didn't normally do? They did -- they played that song that the group had written, the one based on "Open Our Eyes". It was called "For Your Precious Love", and Carter immediately called in another group, the Spaniels, who were favourites of the Impressions and had had hits with records like "Goodnite Sweetheart Goodnite": [Excerpt: The Spaniels, "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite"] Carter insisted on the Impressions singing their song for the Spaniels, and Butler in particular was very worried -- he assumed that Carter just wanted to take their song and give it to the bigger group. But after they played the song again, the Spaniels all enthused about how great the Impressions were and what a big hit the Impressions were going to have with the song. They realised that Carter just *really liked* them and the song, and wanted to show them off. The group went into the studio, and recorded half a dozen takes of "For Your Precious Love", but none of them came off correctly. Eventually Carter realised what the problem was -- Mayfield wasn't a member of the musicians' union, and so Carter had hired session guitarists, but they couldn't play the song the way Mayfield did. Eventually, Carter got the guitarists to agree to take the money, not play, and not tell the union if he got Mayfield to play on the track instead of them. After that, they got it in two takes: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler and the Impressions, "For Your Precious Love"] When it came out, the record caused a major problem for the group, because they discovered when they saw the label that it wasn't credited to "The Impressions", but to "Jerry Butler and the Impressions". The label had decided that they were going to follow the strategy that had worked for so many acts before -- put out records credited to "Singer and Group", and then if they were successful develop that into two separate acts. To his credit, Butler immediately insisted that the record company get the label reprinted, but Vee-Jay said that wasn't something they could do. It was too late, the record was going out as Jerry Butler and the Impressions and that was an end to it. The group were immediately put on the promotional circuit -- there was a rumour that Roy Hamilton, the star who had had hits with "Unchained Melody" and "Ebb Tide", was going to put out a cover version, as the song was perfectly in his style, and so the group needed to get their version known before he could cut his cover. They travelled to Philadelphia, where they performed for the DJ Georgie Woods. We talked about Woods briefly last episode -- he was the one who would later coin the term "blue-eyed soul" to describe the Righteous Brothers -- and Woods was also the person who let Dick Clark know what the important Black records were, so Clark could feature them on his show. Woods started to promote the record, and suddenly Jerry Butler and the Impressions were huge -- "For Your Precious Love" made number three on the R&B charts and number eleven on the pop charts. Their next session produced another hit, "Come Back My Love", although that only made the R&B top thirty and was nowhere near as big a hit: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler and the Impressions, "Come Back My Love"] That would be the last time the original lineup of the Impressions would record together. Shortly afterwards, before a gig in Texas, Jerry Butler called the President of the record label to sort out a minor financial problem. Once the problem had been sorted out, the president put the phone down, but then one of the other Impressions, Arthur Brooks, asked if he could have a word. Butler explained that the other person had hung up, and Brooks went ballistic, saying that Butler thought he was in charge, and thought that he could do all the talking for the group. Well, if he thought that, he could do all the singing too. Brooks and his brother Richard weren't going on stage. Sam Gooden said he wasn't going on either -- he'd been an original Rooster with the Brooks brothers before Butler had joined the group, and he was siding with them. That left Curtis Mayfield. Mayfield said he was still going on stage, because he wanted to get paid. The group solidarity having crumbled, Gooden changed his mind and said he might as well go on with them, so Butler, Mayfield, and Gooden went on as a trio. Butler noticed that the audience didn't notice a difference -- they literally didn't know the Brooks brothers existed -- and that was the point at which he decided to go solo. The Impressions continued without Butler, with Mayfield, Gooden, and the Brooks brothers recruiting Fred Cash, who had sung with the Roosters when they were still in Tennessee. Mayfield took over the lead vocals and soon started attracting the same resentment that Butler had. Vee-Jay dropped the Impressions, and they started looking round for other labels and working whatever odd jobs they could. Mayfield did get some work from Vee-Jay, though, working as a session player on records by people like Jimmy Reed. There's some question about which sessions Mayfield actually played -- I've seen conflicting information in different sessionographies -- but it's at least possible that Mayfield's playing on Reed's most famous record, "Baby What You Want Me to Do": [Excerpt: Jimmy Reed, "Baby What You Want Me to Do"] And one of Mayfield's friends, a singer called Major Lance, managed to get himself a one-off single deal with Mercury Records after becoming a minor celebrity as a dancer on a TV show. Mayfield wrote that one single, though it wasn't a hit: [Excerpt: Major Lance, "I Got a Girl"] Someone else who wasn't having hits was Jerry Butler. By late 1960 it had been two years since "For Your Precious Love" and Butler hadn't made the Hot One Hundred in that time, though he'd had a few minor R&B hits. He was playing the chitlin' circuit, and in the middle of a tour, his guitarist quit. Butler phoned Mayfield, who had just received a four hundred dollar tax bill he couldn't pay -- a lot of money for an unemployed musician in 1960. Mayfield immediately joined Butler's band to pay off his back taxes, and he also started writing songs with Butler. "He Will Break Your Heart", a collaboration between the two (with Calvin Carter also credited), made the top ten on the pop chart and number one on the R&B chart: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "He Will Break Your Heart"] Even more important for Mayfield than writing a top ten hit, though, was his experience playing for Butler at the Harlem Apollo. Not because of the shows themselves, but because playing a residency in New York allowed him to hang out at the Turf, a restaurant near the Brill Building where all the songwriters would hang out. Or, more specifically, where all the *poorer* songwriters would hang out -- the Turf did roast beef sandwiches for fifty cents if you ate standing at the counter rather than seated at a table, and it also had twenty payphones, so all those songwriters who didn't have their own offices would do their business from the phone booths. Mayfield would hang out there to learn the secrets of the business, and that meant he learned the single most important lesson there is -- keep your own publishing. These writers, some of whom had written many hit songs, were living off twenty-five-dollar advances while the publishing companies were making millions. Mayfield also discovered that Sam Cooke, the man he saw as the model for how his career should go, owned his own publishing company. So he did some research, found out that it didn't actually cost anything to start up a publishing company, and started his own, Curtom, named as a portmanteau of his forename and the surname of Eddie Thomas, the Impressions' manager. While the Impressions' career was in the doldrums, Thomas, too, had been working for Butler, as his driver and valet, and he and Mayfield became close, sharing costs and hotel rooms in order to save money. Mayfield not only paid his tax bill, but by cutting costs everywhere he could he saved up a thousand dollars, which he decided to use to record a song he'd written specifically for the Impressions, not for Butler. (This is the song I mentioned at the beginning with the potential slur in the title. If you don't want to hear that, skip forward thirty seconds now): [Excerpt: The Impressions, "Gypsy Woman"] That track got the Impressions signed to ABC/Paramount records, and it made the top twenty on the pop charts and sold half a million copies, thanks once again to promotion from Georgie Woods. But once again, the follow-ups flopped badly, and the Brooks brothers quit the group, because they wanted to be doing harder-edged R&B in the mould of Little Richard, Hank Ballard, and James Brown, not the soft melodic stuff that Mayfield was writing. The Impressions continued as a three-piece group, and Mayfield would later say that this had been the making of them. A three-part harmony group allowed for much more spontaneity and trading of parts, for the singers to move freely between lead and backing vocals and to move into different parts of their ranges, where when they had been a five-piece group everything had been much more rigid, as if a singer moved away from his assigned part, he would find himself clashing with another singer's part. But as the group were not having hits, Mayfield was still looking for other work, and he found it at OKeh Records, which was going through something of a boom in this period thanks to the producer Carl Davis. Davis took Mayfield on as an associate producer and right-hand man,  primarily in order to get him as a guitarist, but Mayfield was also a valuable talent scout, backing vocalist, and especially songwriter. Working with Davis and arranger Johnny Pate, between 1963 and 1965 Mayfield wrote and played on a huge number of R&B hits for OKeh, including "It's All Over" by Walter Jackson: [Excerpt: Walter Jackson, "It's All Over"] "Gonna Be Good Times" for Gene Chandler: [Excerpt: Gene Chandler, "Gonna Be Good Times"] And a whole string of hits for Jerry Butler's brother Billy and his group The Enchanters, starting with "Gotta Get Away": [Excerpt: Billy Butler and the Enchanters, "Gotta Get Away"] But the real commercial success came from Mayfield's old friend Major Lance, who Mayfield got signed to OKeh. Lance had several minor hits written by Mayfield, but his big success came with a song that Mayfield had written for the Impressions, but decided against recording with them, as it was a novelty dance song and he didn't think that they should be doing that kind of material. The Impressions sang backing vocals on Major Lance's "The Monkey Time", written by Mayfield, which became a top ten pop hit: [Excerpt: Major Lance, "The Monkey Time"] Mayfield would write several more hits for Major Lance, including the one that became his biggest hit, "Um Um Um Um Um Um", which went top five pop and made number one on the R&B charts: [Excerpt: Major Lance, "Um Um Um Um Um Um (Curious Mind)"] So Mayfield was making hits for other people at a furious rate, but he was somehow unable to have hits with his own group. He was still pushing the Impressions, but they had to be a weekend commitment -- the group would play gigs all over the country at weekends, but Monday through Friday Mayfield was in the studio cutting hits for other people -- and he was also trying to keep up a relationship not only with his wife and first child, but with the woman who would become his second wife, with whom he was cheating on his first. He was young enough that he could just about keep this up -- he was only twenty at this point, though he was already a veteran of the music industry -- but it did mean that the Impressions were a lower priority than they might have been. At least, they were until, in August 1963, between those two huge Major Lance hits, Curtis Mayfield finally wrote another big hit for the Impressions -- their first in their new three-piece lineup. Everyone could tell "It's All Right" was a hit, and Gene Chandler begged to be allowed to record it, but Mayfield insisted that his new song was for his group: [Excerpt: The Impressions, "It's All Right"] "It's All Right" went to number four on the pop chart, and number one R&B. And this time, the group didn't mess up the follow-up.  Their next two singles, "Talking About My Baby" and "I'm So Proud", both made the pop top twenty, and the Impressions were now stars. Mayfield also took a trip to Jamaica around this time, with Carl Davis, to produce an album of Jamaican artists, titled "The Real Jamaica Ska", featuring acts like Lord Creator and Jimmy Cliff: [Excerpt: Jimmy Cliff, "Ska All Over the World"] But Mayfield was also becoming increasingly politically aware. As the Civil Rights movement in the US was gaining steam, it was also starting to expose broader systemic problems that affected Black people in the North, not just the South. In Chicago, while Black people had been able to vote for decades, and indeed were a substantial political power block, all that this actually meant in practice was that a few powerful self-appointed community leaders had a vested interest in keeping things as they were. Segregation still existed -- in 1963, around the time that "It's All Right" came out, there was a school strike in the city, where nearly a quarter of a million children refused to go to school. Black schools were so overcrowded that it became impossible for children to learn there, but rather than integrate the schools and let Black kids go to the less-crowded white schools, the head of public education in Chicago decided instead to make the children go to school in shifts, so some were going ridiculously early in the morning while others were having to go to school in the evening. And there were more difficult arguments going on around segregation among Black people in Chicago. The issues in the South seemed straightforward in comparison -- no Black person wanted to be lynched or to be denied the right to vote. But in Chicago there was the question of integrating the two musicians' union chapters in the city. Some Black proponents of integration saw merging the two union chapters as a way for Black musicians to get the opportunity to play lucrative sessions for advertising jingles and so on, which only went to white players. But a vocal minority of musicians were convinced that the upshot of integrating the unions would be that Black players would still be denied those jobs, but white players would start getting some of the soul and R&B sessions that only Black players were playing, and thought that the end result would be that white people would gentrify those areas of music and culture where Black people had carved out spaces for themselves, while still denying Black people the opportunity to move into the white spaces. Mayfield was deeply, deeply, invested in the Civil Rights movement, and the wider discourse as more radical voices started to gain strength in the movement. And he was particularly inspired by his hero, Sam Cooke, recording "A Change is Gonna Come".  As the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement was so deeply rooted in religious language, it was natural that Mayfield would turn to the gospel music he'd grown up on for his own first song about these issues, "Keep on Pushing": [Excerpt: The Impressions, "Keep on Pushing"] That became another huge hit, making the top ten on the pop chart and number one on the R&B chart. It's instructive to look at reactions to the Impressions, and to Mayfield's sweet, melodic, singing. White audiences were often dismissive of the Impressions, believing they were attempting to sell out to white people and were therefore not Black enough -- a typical reaction is that of Arnold Shaw, the white music writer, who in 1970 referred to the Impressions as Oreos -- a derogatory term for people who are "Black on the outside, white inside". Oddly, though, Black audiences seem not to have recognised the expertise of elderly white men on who was Black enough, and despite white critics' protestations continued listening to and buying the Impressions' records, and incorporating Mayfield's songs into their activism. For example, Sing For Freedom, a great oral-history-cum-songbook which collects songs sung by Civil Rights activists, collected contemporaneously by folklorists, has no fewer than four Impressions songs included, in lightly adapted versions, as sung by the Chicago Freedom Movement, the group led by Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and others, who campaigned for an end to housing segregation in Chicago. It quotes Jimmy Collier, a Black civil rights activist and folk singer, saying "There's a rock 'n' roll group called the Impressions and we call them ‘movement fellows' and we try to sing a lot of their songs. Songs like ‘Keep On Pushin',' ‘I Been Trying,' ‘I'm So Proud,' ‘It's Gonna Be a Long, Long Winter,' ‘People Get Ready, There's a Train a-Comin',' ‘There's a Meeting Over Yonder' really speak to the situation a lot of us find ourselves in." I mention this discrepancy because this is something that comes up throughout music history -- white people dismissing Black people as not being "Black enough" and trying to appeal to whites, even as Black audiences were embracing those artists in preference to the artists who had white people's seal of approval as being authentically Black. I mention this because I am myself a white man, and it is very important for me to acknowledge that I will make similar errors when talking about Black culture, as I am here. "Keep on Pushing" was the Impressions' first political record, but by no means the most important. In 1965 the Civil Rights movement seemed to be starting to unravel, and there were increasing ruptures between the hardliners who would go on to form what would become the Black Power movement and the more moderate older generation. These ruptures were only exacerbated by the murder of Malcolm X, the most powerful voice on the radical side. Mayfield was depressed by this fragmentation, and wanted to write a song of hope, one that brought everyone together. To see the roots of the song Mayfield came up with we have to go all the way back to episode five, and to "This Train", the old gospel song which Rosetta Tharpe had made famous: [Excerpt: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "This Train (live)"] The image of the train leading to freedom had always been a powerful one in Black culture, dating back to the Underground Railroad -- the network of people who helped enslaved people flee their abusers and get away to countries where they could be free. It was also a particularly potent image for Black people in the northern cities, many of whom had travelled there by train from the South, or whose parents had. Mayfield took the old song, and built a new song around it. His melody is closer than it might seem to that of "This Train", but has a totally different sound and feeling, one of gentle hope rather than fervent excitement. And there's a difference of emphasis in the lyrics too. "This Train", as befits a singer like Tharpe who belonged to a Pentecostal "holiness" sect which taught the need for upright conduct at all times, is mostly a list of those sinners who won't be allowed on the train. Mayfield, by contrast, had been brought up in a Spiritualist church, and one of the nine affirmations of Spiritualism is "We affirm that the doorway to reformation is never closed against any soul here or hereafter". Mayfield's song does talk about how "There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner, Whom would hurt all mankind just to save his own", but the emphasis is on how "there's hope for *all*, among those loved the most", and how "you don't need no baggage", and "don't need no ticket". It's a song which is fundamentally inclusive, offering a vision of hope and freedom in which all are welcome: [Excerpt: The Impressions, "People Get Ready"] The song quickly became one of the most important songs to the Civil Rights movement -- Doctor King called it "the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights movement" -- as well as becoming yet another big hit. We will continue to explore the way Mayfield and the Impressions reacted to, were inspired by, and themselves inspired Black political movements when we look at them again, and their political importance was extraordinary. But this is a podcast about music, and so I'll finish with a note about their musical importance. As with many R&B acts, the Impressions were massive in Jamaica, and they toured there in 1966. In the front row when they played the Carib Theatre in Kingston were three young men who had recently formed a group which they had explicitly modelled on the Impressions and their three-part harmonies. That group had even taken advantage of Jamaica's nonexistent copyright laws to incorporate a big chunk of "People Get Ready" into one of their own songs, which was included on their first album: [Excerpt: The Wailers, "One Love (1965 version)"] Bob Marley and the Wailers would soon become a lot more than an Impressions soundalike group, but that, of course, is a story for a future episode...